Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Early one morning I surprised her by coming up on deck for my watch. She had her shapely
back to me, and her hair was blowing in the wind. She had on her Walkman portable tape
player and was singing loudly along to it. She could not sing very well and sang way out
of tune. I grinned quietly to myself; some things are best left unsaid. I admired her for at
least singing for singing's sake! I kissed her squarely on the back of her cute, little neck;
she really wasn't expecting that!
The island of Martinique was first spotted by Herman, who was on watch early one morn-
ing. “Land ahoy!” he crowed proudly.
Paula and I, who were still asleep, now leaped out of our cozy bunk, a bit sleep-tousled but
now pretty wide awake and smiling at Herman's exuberance. “That it is, and a quick check
with the radio direction finder will confirm that I am the greatest navigator the world has
ever known. Give the lad a double shot of rum by gorrha!” I joked. “Better still, break out
rations for all the crew!”
The bay of Fort-de-France was entered and an open spot was reached, and the anchor chain
clattered on the bow roller as the Danforth anchor was scooted out forward of the bow. It
glided out ahead and was soon lost to sight in the dark blue water.
Looking about us, we failed to recognize any familiar boats. Instead, we noticed we were
surrounded by a flotilla of French cruising boats of every shape, size, and color. The French
loved to paint their boats in exotic greens and yellows and reds and combinations of a vari-
ety of different colors. It was fun to see, and we were soon filled with a feverish desire to
disembark, explore this new island, and meet some of the sailors and locals.
I was impressed to see an official craft make its rolly way across to Déjà vu, whereupon
arrival two customs officials enquired something in French.
“What was it he said?” I asked Paula.
Smiling proudly, she answered them back in their language, and said, “They want to know
if you are ready to clear in.”
“Yes, tell them yes,” I replied. One official clambered aboard with a sheaf of papers and
sat hurriedly down in the cockpit. This was a first for us; we had not expected the customs
officials to personally come out to the visiting boats. We were soon given permission to go
ashore and began readying the dinghy from the cabin top.
Alighting eagerly from the little tender, Herman tied the painter to a free bollard and helped
Paula ashore. There were several other small craft tied up, and soon it became apparent that
most of the owners were inside the little bar situated right on the dock we had just tied up
to.
